# How-To Guides This section contains practical, task-oriented guides for API7 Gateway. Each guide focuses on a specific goal and provides step-by-step instructions to accomplish it. ## Traffic Management[​](#traffic-management "Direct link to Traffic Management") Control how API7 Gateway handles incoming requests and routes them to upstream services. * [Rate Limiting](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/rate-limiting.md): Protect upstream services by limiting the number of requests per consumer or IP address. * [Proxy Rewrite](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/proxy-rewrite.md): Rewrite request URIs, headers, and methods before forwarding to upstream services. * [Response Rewrite](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/response-rewrite.md): Modify response status codes, headers, and body content before returning to the client. * [Canary Release](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/canary-release.md): Gradually roll out changes by splitting traffic between upstream versions using weighted routing. * [Blue-Green Deployment](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/blue-green-deployment.md): Switch traffic between two upstream environments with zero downtime. * [Health Check](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/health-check.md): Configure active and passive health checks to automatically remove unhealthy upstream nodes. * [CORS](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/cors.md): Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing to allow or restrict access from different domains. * [Fault Injection](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/fault-injection.md): Test application resilience by injecting HTTP errors and response delays. * [Proxy Cache](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/proxy-cache.md): Improve API performance and reduce upstream load by caching responses at the gateway. * [Proxy Mirror](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/proxy-mirror.md): Duplicate and send a percentage of production traffic to a secondary service for testing. * [Global Plugin Exemption](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/traffic-management/global-plugin-exemption.md): Conditionally skip global plugin execution for specific routes using route labels and the `_meta.filter` mechanism. ## API Security[​](#api-security "Direct link to API Security") Authenticate and protect API consumers. * [Key Authentication](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/api-security/key-auth.md): Require clients to provide an API key in the request header or query string. * [Basic Authentication](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/api-security/basic-auth.md): Require clients to provide a username and password in the HTTP Authorization header. * [JWT Authentication](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/api-security/jwt-auth.md): Use JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for stateless authentication. * [HMAC Authentication](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/api-security/hmac-auth.md): Secure APIs with Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) request signing. * [Data Masking](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/api-security/data-masking.md): Redact or remove sensitive fields from request data before it is written to logs. ## Protocol Proxy[​](#protocol-proxy "Direct link to Protocol Proxy") Proxy non-HTTP protocols and specialized API traffic. * [gRPC Proxy](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/protocol-proxy/grpc-proxy.md): Proxy gRPC traffic, including REST-to-gRPC transcoding and gRPC-Web support for browser clients. * [WebSocket Proxy](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/protocol-proxy/websocket-proxy.md): Enable WebSocket proxying for long-lived, bidirectional connections. * [GraphQL Proxy](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/protocol-proxy/graphql-proxy.md): Proxy GraphQL APIs and add GraphQL-aware rate limiting and caching. * [TCP/UDP Proxy](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/protocol-proxy/tcp-udp-proxy.md): Proxy Layer 4 TCP and UDP traffic to upstream services. ## Plugin Development[​](#plugin-development "Direct link to Plugin Development") Extend API7 Gateway functionality with custom plugins. * [Custom Lua Plugins](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/plugin-development/custom-lua-plugins.md): Write and deploy custom Lua plugins that run inside the gateway process. ## Operations[​](#operations "Direct link to Operations") Manage organizational access control and operational workflows. * [Manage Gateway Groups](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/ops/multi-gateway-group.md): Create and manage multiple gateway groups to isolate traffic across environments or teams. * [Configure Secret Management](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/ops/secret-manager.md): Integrate external secret managers for sensitive configuration. * [Create a Custom Role](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/ops/create-custom-role.md): Define permission policies, attach them to a role, and assign the role to a user. * [Design a Custom Role System](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/ops/design-custom-role-system.md): Plan a scalable RBAC model for teams, environments, and delegated administration. * [Configure Readiness and Liveness Probes](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/how-to-guides/ops/configure-readiness-probe.md): Configure health probes for data planes in Kubernetes, Docker, and other deployments. ## Related Resources[​](#related-resources "Direct link to Related Resources") * [Quick Start](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/getting-started/quick-start.md): Set up API7 Gateway for the first time. * [Tutorial: Proxying and Managing API Requests](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/getting-started/tutorial-proxying-api-requests.md): A hands-on tutorial covering basic proxying and plugin management. * [Key Concepts](https://docs.api7.ai/api7-gateway/key-concepts/overview.md): Understand the core concepts behind API7 Gateway.